Never Let A Good Dress Go To Waste
by AnomalyDetected
Summary: She's got a date to the dance and everything's going to go perfectly, she's so sure of it. She's all dressed up and ready to go, but he never shows. Of course she goes crawling to the best friend she's ever had. Connor Temple. [A Primeval fic where Connor and Abby are sixteen years old]


It was the night of the Spring Dance, Abby sat dressed up on her couch, happy that her father was sleeping and Jack was at his friend's house. There was nothing and no one to worry about. Her date would pick her up at seven, she wouldn't be home until eleven, and everything would be _perfect_.

She had make-up on, a dress that she thought was absolutely beautiful, and after an hour of trying, she had finally got her hair in a style she actually liked. She had really liked this boy and wanted to look amazing for him. It was one of the first few boys she found she actually liked and wanted to go out with, maybe. If it went well, maybe he wouldn't judge her by her tough attitude or the fights she'd gotten into.

It was 6:45 and she could hardly sit still. She kept bouncing her leg and getting up to stretch. She couldn't keep a grin off her face, she was the most excited she'd been since she had been allowed to get a pet lizard.

His name was Sam and he was a rugby player; a popular boy. If she got in with him, then maybe she'd have friends for once and she'd enjoy school instead of being the girl who was always in detention for, in her opinion, stupid reasons.

It was 7:00 and she was anxious to get out of the house. Sam needed to hurry up, it was starting to get stuffy and her heart just kept beating faster and faster whenever she thought of him. His perfect fluffy hair, his perfect blue eyes, his perfect body. God, it was her longest lasting crush and she actually had a chance.

At 7:10, she grabbed a Rubix's cube and started playing with it, just to keep herself busy. It was obvious that he was just running late. Maybe there was a lot of traffic. It wasn't as if he wasn't coming...of course not...he seemed to have really liked her when she asked him out.

At 7:15, she threw the Rubix's cube across the room and swore at the world. Maybe he wasn't coming after all. Maybe it had all just been a joke or he wanted to see her hurt or something. Whatever the reason, she wasn't going to be forgiving him. Even if he was 'just late' which she _doubted_.

At 7:25, Abby was positive he wasn't coming and slipped off her shoes and wiped off most of her make-up. She grabbed her phone and called the only one she knew wasn't going to the dance. Connor Temple. He was her best friend and he always knew how to make the world better, even when it sucked. She still sat on the couch, as if she was waiting for a car to pull up. She never knew, right?

Connor answered on the third ring.

"Yo?"  
"Connor," She sighed, her voice wavering. Was she actually upset? God, stupid emotions. No one liked them.  
"Why aren't you at the dance? Wasn't Sam going to pick you up a half hour ago? You were telling me all about how perfect it was going to be!" He exclaimed. He hadn't particularly enjoyed the descriptions and Abby's dreams, but he listened with a smile anyway. It made her happy and he liked when she was happy, even when it wasn't with him.  
"He stood me up." Abby said, tears filling her eyes. "He never came, I'm not at the dance, and I'm not _going_ to the dance."  
"Abs," Connor said lightly. "I'm so sorry...he must've been a big idiot. Most rugby players are,"  
"No, Connor, I'm the big idiot. I'm the one who was so excited and so happy and so ready to go to the stupid dance and he didn't come because it was probably a joke or something and I fell for it. I fell for the idea that a rugby player could actually really like me."  
"Danny likes you," He tried.  
"Danny doesn't like, _like_ me though. He's just my big brother, he's kind of stuck with me."  
"Abs,"  
"_No_."

Connor put down his pencil and closed the dinosaur book he'd been reading. Everything but Abby was irrelevant. His best friend was upset and she needed him more than anything. Abby with a broken heart...was never very fun.

"Why don't you come over? You can come to my window, me mum or nan won't see you and won't ask you questions unless you want to talk to them...but if you don't, well...maybe I can make you feel better..."

Abby always listened to that offer.

Connor's house was her _home_.

Connor waited for fifteen minutes before hearing the window sliding open. He always left it unlocked for her. If it wasn't for her, he'd always have it locked, keeping himself safe from zombies and vampires and whatever else crept about at night. But he wanted to give her a place to stay whenever she needed one...he knew both Becker and Danny did the same.

"Hey," He gave a smile, ignoring the tears on her face. She wouldn't want him to mention it.  
"Hi." She still had on eye shadow and lip gloss, her hair was still done semi-nicely, and she still wore her dress. The only difference, Connor imagined, was that she was wearing her trainers.  
"I feel under dressed," He teased, as he stood in his pants, vests, and socks. He had grown past her embarrassment with her, as she had even seen him walk around in just a towel.  
"Oh shut up," Abby rolled her eyes, pushing him lightly.  
"I'm really sorry, Abs. I'm telling you, he's a total idiot. I mean, look at you! You're beautiful!" He complimented, though he knew she hated them. "And besides, I mean, Sam Campbell? I mean, I did his maths work for three years! You want a guy that's good at math or he'll never bring enough money for your dates!"

Abby laughed and sat on his bed, kicking off her shoes. It was comfortable and normal. Maybe, eventually she would forget that she'd been stood up and just be happy with being with him.

"You know I'm serious right," Connor said. "It isn't you that was a big idiot, no matter what you think. No one should pass up and offer to spend all night with Abby Maitland...it's an amazing experience."

She looked away from him. It wasn't as if she hated compliments, she quite liked getting them, she just never knew how to accept them or how to listen to them or how to respond. It was hard. She'd not gotten many before she found her little group of friends...and when they came from Connor...they just felt and sounded so real.

"An amazing experience?" She lifted up an eyebrow. "Last time I stayed over your house, I woke you up at four in the morning to talk to you about the dream I had...and it was literally about spiders in a giant chocolate factory."

"And then I got to tell you about my dream of being Superman and going on a date with Wonder Woman...and then we just stayed up the rest of the night talking about dreams in general. I quite liked that night, Abby...I'm telling you, the only thing bad about spending all night with you...is waking you up in the morning."

She grinned. "Well, you're no fun to wake up either. I have to shout Connor Gregory Temple ten thousand times, pull off your blanket, threaten to take away your pillows, and get kicked in the knee."

"That was one time!" He claimed, shaking his head. "I swear, that was just because I was so tired and it was a Saturday and I wanted to spend all morning in bed, but yet you woke up at 8 in the morning! What was that about?!"

She giggled and Connor had a grin on his face and butterflies in his stomach. He absolutely loved the sound of her giggling, it was just so _damn_ adorable.

At 10:00, they'd already played two video games, tried to watch a movie, threw pillows at each other, and made an abundance of new inside jokes that'd last forever. Or at least, they thought they would...but they always thought the jokes would last forever, but really faded in the next week or so.

"Abs, are you sleeping over?" Connor asked, lying down. He was honestly wiped out. She always took so much energy out of him.  
"I think so. No use in going home just to get even more hurt, yeah? Jack's at a friend's house so I don't have to worry about him for the night...and I definitely don't want to walk home now."  
"You took all your clothes home last time, you know," He pointed out.  
"Yeah...and?"  
"You're just going to spend a night in a fantastic dress without ever having danced in it? I don't think that's allowed. Think it's against the law, actually," He told her.  
"There's no music to dance to," Abby said.  
"I have a radio, I have slow songs-or fast songs, if you'd like!" Connor said quickly, afraid that he might've pushed it too far. Usually dancing with them just happened. It never happened because of a request.

Abby thought about it and he thought she'd deny, but she stood up and looked at him, holding her hand out.

"Guess you're right, can't let a good dress go to waste..."

He grabbed her hand and allowed her to pull him up, flipping on his stereo, a dumb smile on his face. She was so beautiful and he hated that she didn't even know it.

"Thank you, Connor," She whispered, relaxing herself and dancing slowly.  
"For dancing?" He questioned, trying to move how she was. She was a good dancer, him? Not so much. His nan claimed he had two left feet and no rhythm in his hips.  
"No." She shook her head. "For being there for me. I could've spent all night in my bed crying over a dumb boy,"  
"Yeah, instead you can spend all night crying in my bed over a dumb boy." He grinned.  
"I don't want to cry anymore. I don't need Sam when I've got you...besides, I'll just tell Becker and Danny to beat him up tomorrow, yeah? They may be teammates, but they'll listen to anything I say."  
"Abby, I think if you tried hard enough, everyone would listen to what you have to say. You have a really convincing voice, an amazing amount of forcefulness, and really, really good puppy dog eyes. Plus you're beautiful. Any man will listen to a beautiful woman...it's like ingrained in our brains or something...but uh...you're welcome, by the way. I'm glad to have helped."

And they danced and for Connor, it seemed like that moment lasted forever. Even though they'd danced before, it was never quite so serious. In fact, during most of the slow dances they'd done before, they both cracked up half way. This time? This time it was real...and it was intimate and afterwards, they threw themselves down on the bed and Abby made a sly remark about the sheets being Batman and they fell asleep and at four in the morning, Abby woke Connor up to tell him about a dream where they were grown up and still doing the same exact things...and it was nice...

in fact...

it was a better ending than Abby could've ever hoped for with Sam.


End file.
